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Report says Texas town wants to take backup NASA Mission Control from Huntsville

NASA POI Center

NASA officials unveiled and toured an upgraded Payload Operations Integration Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center Wednesday June 19, 2013. A similar, smaller control center allows NASA to control all space missions in Huntsville as a backup for Mission Control in Houston. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - A news report says a Texas company is negotiating with Johnson Space Center to move its backup Mission Control from Huntsville, Ala., to Texas.

Texas television station KBTX quotes a local businessman saying talks are moving forward. "We've had several meetings now at Johnson Space Center and had them up to Bryan several times, so those are going really well. Two weeks from now we'll be going over the first draft of the report with them," Matt Leonard told KBTX. He is president of Texas Space, Technology, Applications and Research (TSTAR). Bryan, Texas, is a suburb of College Station.

NASA's backup mission control is now located at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center. That's where controllers already handle all of the science aboard the International Space Station, and the center has facilities to accommodate controllers from Houston, as well.